


A Day in the Gaming District

by t34m_zit



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Dancing, Fluff, M/M, Pining, and there was only one bed, casual affection, tango is a himbo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25782145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t34m_zit/pseuds/t34m_zit
Summary: Tango and Etho work on the gaming district but not without distracting each other a few times.
Relationships: etho/tango tek
Comments: 4
Kudos: 73





	A Day in the Gaming District

Tango checked his shulker boxes for the third time, his mind buzzing as he thought about the night ahead. It wasn’t supposed to be anything big, just him and Etho building the gaming district paths now that they had the design down. Though, he couldn’t help but hope for more than two bros building, whether it just be some hand holding, or maybe a kiss, and possibly even some cuddling, ‘Nope, Nope. Stop it Tango. You don’t wanna go gettin’ your hopes up.’ He thought to himself as he packed all his shulker boxes away into his inventory.

He made his way to his nether portal, chuckling at the zombified piglin that stood at his “welcome mat” that he made a few weeks ago. With a lazy smile he stood in his portal waiting for the all too familiar feeling of the portal to wash over him. When it finally did he didn’t hesitate to walk out of the frame and open his large red bat like wings, cracking open a rocket, he sprung into the sky, making his way to where he thought the gaming district was. He flew his way around the new nether, looking for any kind of telltale of the path to his destination. After thirty minutes of unsuccessful searching, he made his way back to his portal and sat down in front of it, pulling out his communicator. Quickly he made his way to his and Etho’s DMs and sent him a message.

Tango: hey sooooooo  
Etho: you’re lost?  
Tango: how did you know?! I like to think im not that late!  
Tango: … ok maybe i am, but still!  
Etho: lol, it’s fine. give me your coords and I’ll come pick you up.  
Tango: i was able to make it back to my portal so just meet me there  
Etho: I’ll be there in ten.

Sighing, Tango pulled at his gloves. He felt so dumb, yeah, of course it wasn’t his fault that the nether completely changed over night. But it definitely was his fault that it happened two weeks ago and he hadn’t actually traversed it outside the obvious marked paths. He huffed as he looked at the main channel of his communicator, the server was a lot busier than normal, the chat being filled with the same messages as normal; hellos, friendly banter, and a couple of advertisements for shops. It brought a smile to his face, since he missed most of last season to a out of server project it was nice to see nothing really changed. 

His tail lightly tapped at the ground impatiently as he scrolled through the photos of their plan. It was simple enough, but he wasn’t gonna lie, getting to blow the entire area sky high was probably his favorite part. He hummed as he continued, realizing just how many photos he took of that whole event, most of which featured Etho in some part. Man… He had it bad. The two were actually quite close, close enough for them to be casually affectionate. It was something they both had a silent agreement on to not make a big deal of, but Tango couldn’t help the way it made his heart flutter. 

He swiped to the next picture to be greeted by a selfie of him and Etho, he had a huge goofy lopsided grin and you could almost see Etho’s grin through his mask. His hair and clothes were singed from the TNT while Etho on the other hand looked no different than normal, he felt his face warm at the memory. That was just after Tango had braved about five TNT explosions with nothing but a shield. Right after he took the photo Etho had placed the ghost of a kiss on the corner of his mouth, the only thing stopping it from being an actual kiss was his mask. He set his communicator down and pulled his hands up to his face as he let out a sigh. The more he thought about it the faster his tail pat the ground, he felt like some dumb teenager as he tried to get the excess energy out of his system.

Before he knew it he felt a hand on his shoulder and almost jumped out of his skin with a half audible high pitched scream, “Hey Tango, did I spook ya?” Etho asked, there was a barely held back chuckle in his voice. 

Tango looked up, with a smile as he sat up and puffed his chest out, “I have No idea what you're talking about! I’ve never been spooked ever thank you very much!” he held up the proud persona for only a few seconds before bursting into laughter with Etho quickly following suit. Tango couldn’t help but watch Etho as they both slowly calmed down, something about when you could almost see his smile through his mask made Tango fall for him even more.

Etho looked down at Tango with eyes that made his heart melt from how soft they were, “There something happening behind me or do I have something on my face?” Etho asked, his voice had that softness of someone who could start laughing again at any point. 

It took a couple of seconds for Tango to process what he was saying, “Ah, no! I mean, well, uh…” He tripped over his words, his face red as the other chuckled, already moving from the topic as he offered him a hand to help him up. He took it and Etho pulled him up to his feet in one clean movement, reminding Tango just how strong he was. 

Reluctantly, Tango let go of Etho’s hand and dusted himself off, making sure he had everything before they left. He patted all his pockets three times before he realized he had left his communicator on the ground. He turned to pick it up to see Etho holding it, looking at what was open on it, “Reminiscing about that time you almost died, huh?” He asked as he turned the phone so that the screen was facing away from him.

Tango chuckled as he grabbed his communicator from him, “I mean, when I got some diamonds And a butler for it, it's hard to Not reminisce about it. Not to mention it was cool as hell!” He said as he turned it off and placed it in his pocket. 

“Yeah sure, that’s fair.” Etho said, shrugging as he walked past Tango. In one smooth motion he laced their fingers, pulling the other along with him. “Now, let's get going. We got a lot to do.” He said as he started down a soul soil path, luckily they both had soulspeed so it was the opposite of a problem. 

Tango just nodded and allowed Etho to lead him. They technically could fly there, the nether tunnels were specifically built to fit most hermits wingspans but Etho was one of the outliers. His large mostly brown eagle wings made it extremely hard for him to, but Tango could say that he at least preferred it this way, especially with Etho’s hand in his. The trip was quiet and calm, the only thing breaking the comfortable silence between the two being the ambient sounds of the nether and all the new mobs and biomes. About five minutes into the walk they faced a large opening leading to a massive lava ocean. Etho untangled their fingers, much to Tango’s disappointment, and pulled out some rockets. Tango went to do the same but Etho stopped him by wrapping his arm around his waist, with a beat of his wings and a rocket activation the two were into the air.

Even though he was confused, Tango didn’t argue as he slipped his arm around Etho’s shoulders. The silence was comfortable as they glided their way to the opening on the other side of the ocean. It wasn’t uncommon for the two to just enjoy each other’s company but it was a little odd. Normally Tango had things to say, or at least ramble about, but right now all he could think about was how comforting it was to have Etho’s hand around his waist. As they approached the ground they both instinctively lifted their legs till they were slow enough to not hurt anything and landed. Tango unhooked his arm from Etho waiting for him to do the same, instead he just continued on, his fingers drummed a tune as they stepped into the portal and once they were through that's when Etho finally let go. 

Etho let out a hum as he stretched his arms above his head, “Have you seen what Joe did?” He turned on his heel looking around the gaming district, the once lush jungle skyline now completely flattened, “He said it took him around nine hours! Wild man only wanted a fully enchanted netherite axe for it.” He looked over to Tango, he could tell in the tone of Etho’s voice that he had a lazy smile on his face.

“He did great! It definitely makes our job easier.” Tango replied as he pulled up his inventory, “So where's our base of operations gonna be?” He asked, pulling out a bright red shulker box.

“Oh, over here is where I put all my shulkers.” Etho said, motioning for the other to follow him. Together they walked to the north where the planned man made cave was, in the indent there were already five shulkers hanging off of the wall. Next to them there was the normal crafting table, stonecutter, anvil, and bed.

Quickly Tango placed down his seven, quietly he came to the realization that he forgot a bed, he couldn’t tell if he was lucky or not but he tried to not dwell on it. “Well let's get started!” Tango said, turning from the wall with a grin, “You bring any tunes Mr. Music Man?” 

Etho’s eyes basically lit up, “Oh you know it! I brought your favorite!” he said as he pulled out a jukebox and placed it down before pulling out a music disk. Etho presented it to him, a smile big enough to be seen in his eyes, Tango couldn’t really read the writing on the disk but he did see a few hearts scribbled on it. It made his heart skip a beat as Etho popped it into the jukebox, immediately the sounds of electro swing filled the air, Tango couldn’t help but grin like a fool as he heard it.

Tango’s grin turned slightly devilish as he grabbed Etho’s hand, “Work can wait a song, let's dance!” He pulled Etho out of the cave, into the more open netherrack outside.

“Woah! Wait! I-I don’t dance!” Etho said through nervous laughter, almost tripping on his own feet while Tango dragged him.

Shaking his head, Tango stopped, now standing in the sun outside the cave, “Bull! Swing dancing is simple enough, you just have fun with it! No rhyme or reason, hell for now just follow my lead.” he insisted, his smile somehow wider than before. Etho hesitated for a second before nodding, Tango pumped his fist up in the air in success before letting go of his hand. He started simple, swaying his hips and hands, kicking legs just a little. Etho followed suit, his movements were slightly blocky but soon he got used to it, “See you had nothing to worry about! You’re doing great so far!” Tango said, his voice just loud enough to hear over the beat of the song.

“Whatever you say Tang man.” Etho replied as he looked up from his feet, Tango could swear he could see him blushing under that mask of his. 

“Now watch this.” Tango said, motioning down to his feet. He started out slow, moving from his toe to heel a few times before really getting into it. Moving his whole body while he got lost in the music, by the end of the song he had completely forgotten that he was showing Etho anything. In all honesty he had even forgotten that he was there till he opened his eyes and looked up at him. 

Etho looked at him with sparkling eyes that made Tango blush, “That… Was awesome! Holy shit dude!” Etho said, reaching over to him and wrapping an arm around him, “Were you just gonna hide those sick skills forever?” 

Tango shrugged, rubbed the back of his head with his hand, still not quite over his embarrassment, “Oh you know… It just never came up.” 

“Well, we gotta set a date where you properly show me! That- I- I gotta know how you did that!” Etho suggested, his hands move excitedly as he spoke. Tango couldn’t tell if the use of ‘date’ was intentional or not but didn’t bother to ask.

Tango nodded in agreement, “Yeah! Right now we need to actually work, though.” he quickly said, he wasn’t expecting to be the one leaving this dance embarrassed but here they were.

“Holy smokes, I forgot about that!” Etho replied through some chuckles, “Here take some blackstone and let's get started.” He handed Tango a few stacks of blackstone and grabbed his hand, pulling him to the path they had started last time they were here.

The next three hours went pretty cleanly, they stopped for a food break since Etho had made some mushroom soup for the two to share. While the fire spread around had been quite the safety hazard right now it was perfect, allowing them to heat up their soup before digging in. Tango wouldn’t say it aloud but it was some of the best mushroom soup he’s ever had, whether that was because it was actually better or because Etho made it he couldn’t say but he did finish it faster than the other. Quietly he sat and watched as the other ate, he didn’t mean to stare, it's just not often anyone sees Etho with his mask down. He studied Etho’s features, the scar over his left eye continued down his cheek before stopping about an inch before his chin. Then he had light gray stubble that was interrupted by a large ridged scar from the right of his mouth down his neck. 

Etho looked up from his soup, spoon still in his mouth, “What? Do I have something on my face?” he asked, his words muffled by the spoon as he titled his head to the right just a bit. Tango shook his head, not really able to think of a good reason for his staring before he pulled the spoon out of his mouth and spoke again, “Good! Though,” he stopped for a second before reaching over to Tango and wiping a mushroom off of his cheek, “you had a stray mushroom on your cheek.” He finished, his hand lingering, Tango could see something in his eyes, something along the lines of hesitation.

Tango moved his hand to rest on Etho’s, “Can- Can I kiss you?” He asked, his mouth moving faster than his mind. Etho didn’t answer him, instead he leaned over and connected their lips into a chaste kiss. It was sweet but short lived, just long enough for Tango to realize despite how the scarring looked Etho’s lips were actually really, really soft. 

Etho pulled away with a small smile on his lips, “Well, that's enough of a break! Back to work!” He said, pulling his hand away and standing up. Before Tango could even organize his thoughts Etho was already on the other side of the gaming district in a burst of rocket air. 

With a sigh Tango put his face in his hands, of course Etho would do that. That’s so up his ally he should have seen it coming yesterday! After sitting there for a minute he got up, quickly picking up the area and putting everything away he went back to his part of the gaming district that he was working on. There was a lot about that food break that he hadn’t processed.

A few more hours passed before they were almost done, just a few details that needed to be put in. “Hey Tango, can you go get some more blackstone for me?” Etho asked stretching with a small yawn before he crawled his way off of the raised path. Tango didn’t respond as he watched the other, each had discarded their vests a few hours into the project and while Tango didn’t notice it at first, now he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Etho. His undershirt was much tighter than it seemed, complementing his tone muscles extremely well and effectively trapping Tango’s gaze. “Tango?” Etho asked again, looking over his shoulder.

Tango’s tail straightened in surprise as he was pulled out of his thoughts, quickly he nodded, “Yeah! Yeah, of course!” he said as he turned away from him, praying he didn’t notice the blush on his face. Quickly he made his way over to the wall where the shulkers now silent jukebox were, shuffling through them before finally finding their last shulker of blackstone near the bottom. After putting a couple of stacks into his inventory, he stood up and took a couple of steps backwards spreading his wings ready to fly. 

Before Tango realized it he bumped into Etho who immediately snaked his arms under his wings and pulled him into his body making it so that Tango’s back pressed into his body. His face was bright red as he tried to process what was happening, realizing just how tall Etho was compared to him. Etho’s hands rested on his hips, tapping some unknown tune, while his face was nuzzled into the crook of Tango’s neck, “It’s getting pretty late…” Etho said, just how tired he was evident in his voice.

“Oh yeah, it is.” Tango said, looking outside the little cave they were in, “You wanna head home and finish detailing tomorrow?” he asked, his tail absentmindedly curled around Etho’s leg.

Etho let out a small groan, “That’s a far flight though… We could just stay here, I brought a bed.” he offered, motioning to the bed to their right with a tilt of his head.

Tango hummed, “You’re right, but it’s only one bed, we won't both fit on there.” He could feel Etho shrug before moving his arms so that they wrap around his waist and picking him up, making Tango’s tail uncoil from his leg, “Hey?! E?!” Tango asked as he struggled to hold in laughter. Etho didn’t say anything as he made his way over to the bed, sitting down and making Tango sit in his lap. 

“Yeah we’ll fit. We just can’t spoon, sadly.” Etho said quietly, he sounded like he fall asleep right then and there.

Tango did a mental double take at the ‘sadly’, “Wh- Wait?? Sadly??” he asked, confused, he felt so out of the loop in his own relationship.

A small chuckle left Etho before he spoke, “Yeah, spooning, ya know, something couples do.” Etho replied his voice was soft and amused as Tango made a noise, he wasn’t sure what it exactly was but it obviously meant confusion. Etho couldn’t stop himself from laughing as Tango continued with his confusion, “I thought we been dating for the past month?” Etho said through his quiet laughs.

Tango sputtered, “I- YOU- A MONTH???” was all he managed to get out as he felt his cheeks warm, “Is that why you’ve been so touchy and affectionate? I thought you were being friendly, oh my god…” he said slowly getting quieter as the sentence continued.

“Meh, it’s ok babe, I just thought you were shy.” Etho replied, his chin resting on Tango’s shoulder again, “Can we deal with it fully in the morning though? I’m sleepy…” he asked. Tango just nodded, realizing himself just how tired he was as he stood up from Etho’s lap, much to the others' dislike. Quickly Etho shuffled into a lying position, opening his arms for Tango to join him which Tango immediately took him up on, laying so that he could lay face to face with him. With a yawn Etho reached up to his mask and pulled it down once again revealing the harsh scars on his mouth and chin.

Tango brought his hands up to Etho’s face, first running his fingers along his stubble before rubbing his right thumb over the scar. He looked up at Etho with curious eyes but Etho only responded with a shrug and Tango, being too tired to question it, dropped it. Instead he opted for connecting their lips, it was a soft kiss, one that neither moved to deepen it, rather just enjoying the feel of their lips on the others. Once they pulled apart Tango moved his hands down to Etho’s waist and cuddled into his chest, all too ready to fall asleep. Etho absentmindedly played with Tango’s hair, humming as the two comfortably drifted off to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> ok im going to level with you, i love tangtho so much its, its so good, its So Good and i love writing both of them so this was just so much fun!  
> not to mention i wanted to write something where Etho gets to show off his music knowledge at least a little and after hearing that Tangos favorite genre was electro swing i was possessed and had to write the dancing scene


End file.
